https://is-spi-on-pine64-devices-used-yet.site/

Did you notice that rather than on PC where you download a generic image which you can just live boot from USB, on ARM every distro needs to support every device individually? It's not just lacking mainline Linux support, it's also lacking a generic way to boot these devices like x86 has. #SPIflash can solve this perfectly by implementing UEFI on a dedicated chip but current new @PINE64 devices are lacking this. Let's get loud to make them add this again in new devices!

@bart @PINE64 This has nothing to do with SPI flash, but rather with having an area that is bootable and not overwritten during installation.

In the #Librem5, this function could be served by the eMMC storage, which contains extra "boot" partitions that are not normally visible from the OS, but the CPU can boot from them.

Placing u-boot there with some common interface like UEFI was always something I wanted to have.

@dcz @bart

Where can I find out more info about these extra "boot" partitions? If they're hidden by the OS (by u-boot?), are they meant to be written to by uuu?

@craftyguy @dcz @bart "Hidden" is a wrong word, they're just separate - available as /dev/mmcblk0boot0 and /dev/mmcblk0boot1, currently empty by default. There's also a Replay Protected Memory Block at /dev/mmcblk0rpmb. Each of them 4MB.

@dos @dcz @bart

Will the SOC automatically try to boot from those first? (or at all?)

@craftyguy @dcz @bart AFAIUI you can set which partition (boot0, boot1 or user) is bootable. Never tried myself though :)